The HeadHunter shpk, Albania’s largest human resource company, is pleased to announce the official launch of the LGBTIQ Employment Equality Index. The Index is Albania and Eastern Europe’s first-ever ranking system which objectively ranks how well companies protect and uphold the rights and dignity of LGBTIQ job-seekers and employees. It rewards those who have put a commitment to workplace diversity into practice. It also represents a great opportunity for companies, consumers and legal authorities to promote best practices in the employment sector. This is an occasion to communicate, educate and raise awareness against discrimination in the workplace.
The HeadHunter shpk Founder, Elton Illirjani, highlights this statement. “We see the issue of workplace inclusion everyday in our company’s work. For that reason, we created the Index as a way to tangibly contribute to bettering the lives of LGBTIQ Albanians. By leveraging the competitive spirit in the private sector, we created this Index to reward companies for their efforts for workplace inclusion of LGBTIQ persons and encourage companies to receive ever-higher rewards in future years.”
In this second year of the initiative, Albanian companies showed a great deal of interest in participating in the ranking and the total of 109 companies from multiple industries voluntarily took part in the research. Following a standardized format and methodology, The HeadHunter shpk staff conducted on-site interviews and verification of policies and practices. Out of the 109 companies, seven achieved a ranking of bronze, silver, or gold recognition.
Analysis of the findings has shown that workplace diversity policies, practices, and programs are generally lacking in Albania. If they do exist, they generally do not include LGBTIQ job-seekers and employees. Companies lack policies, practices, and trained human resource managers on the topic of workplace diversity.
Considering the findings, The HeadHunter shpk sees a tremendous need and demand for trainings on workplace diversity for companies in Albania as well as standardized policies and practices which companies can adapt and adopt. “For these two years findings, we were not surprised to see the lack of investments in workplace diversity,” says The HeadHunter shpk Founder, Elton Illirjani, “but rather than focus on the negative, we see a tremendous opportunity and interest of companies to adopt policies and train staff on this topic. We stand ready to offer this support to companies, building on their willingness and offering our technical skills.”
The HeadHunter shpk will introduce the result of the last Index on 31 August 2017, at Tirana International Hotel, Onufri Room, at 11:00 am. All the media and other stake-holders are invited to attend this interesting event, where the results of 2017 will be compared with those of 2016.
For further information on the Index, please visit http://headhunter.al/lgbtiq-index or contact the Project Manager, Dorina Laçi at: d.laci@headhunter.al
